there he goes again: the alternating political style of bill clinton

There He Goes Again: The Alternating Political Style of Bill ClintonAuthor(s): Fred I. GreensteinSource: PS: Political Science and Politics, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Jun., 1998), pp. 178-181Published by: American Political Science AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/420247 .

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Features

There He Goes Again: The Alternating Political Style of Bill Clinton

Fred I. Greenstein, Princeton University

Some political leadership styles are of a piece. Jimmy Carter's is a case in point. Both in the comments he privately jotted on the margins of memos from his aides and in his public discourse, Carter exhibited a common concern for detail and in- sistence on the correctness of his own positions. Other styles are lay- ered, as in that of Dwight Eisen- hower, whose apoliltical public de- meanor concealed an analytically detached political sophisticate who obtained results by indirection (Greenstein 1982).

The political style of President Bill Clinton is neither unitary nor lay- ered. It alternates. The tempest over whether Clinton was involved in a dalliance with a White House intern is a reminder of his tendency to os- cillate between an uninhibited, anything-goes approach to leadership and a more measured operating mode in which he sets attainable goals and proceeds skillfully in his efforts to realize them.

The pattern is recurrent. After his election as governor of Arkansas in 1978, Clinton instituted a substantial increase in automobile licensing fees, peopled his administration with bearded political activists, and other- wise failed to conform to the political mores of his state. As a result, he was voted out of office two years later. He then spent the next two years stumping the state and promis- ing to remedy his ways. He was re- turned to office, serving from 1983 to 1993 and establishing a reputation as a pragmatic and effective state executive (Maraniss 1995).

Similarly, the initial phase of the Clinton presidency was an exercise in excess. Having promised to "focus like a laser," Clinton hit Washington with a splatter of controversial initia-

tives-gays in the military, problem- atic cabinet nominations, and a controversial, closed-door health-care task force headed by his wife (Drew 1995; Johnson and Broder 1996; Woodward 1994). His public approval rating at the hundred-day mark set a record low for that point in a presidency. In the words of Time, his was an "amazing shrinking presidency."

But he then made an abrupt correction, signaling his willingness to adhere to the norms of the policy- making community. He further im- proved his performance when the Republicans took control of Con- gress in 1996, using his Capitol Hill adversaries as a foil to increase his own public support, and went on to become the fourth of the ten post- World War II chief executives to win reelection.

Anatomy of a Political Style Underpinning Clinton's political

style is a constellation of traits that vary in their ascendancy depending upon the circumstances in which he finds himself. The traits themselves are not unique, but their pattern is.'

1. Preoccupation with Policy Clinton's most unusual quality is

his deep absorption in public policy, particularly domestic policy. Most chief executives have broad pro- grammatic aims, but, more so than any other president, Clinton is an aficionado of policy qua policy.

2. Political Passion

Clinton also is striking in the ex- tent to which he is a political animal,

although his passion for politics stands out less than his fascination with policy in a universe that in- cludes Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon. As a compiler of reminiscences about him by citizens of his native state puts it:

He had what seemed to be a compul- sive need to meet people, to know them, to like them, to have them like him. These are the instincts of the calculating politician, but they long preceded Clinton's political impulses. Bill Clinton's is the case where a man's deepest human instinct per- fectly matched, maybe even gave rise to, his most abiding ambition. (Dumas 1993, xvi)

3. Verbal Facility The link between Clinton's policy

preoccupation and his political pro- clivities is his capacity to pour out words. The record abounds with evi- dence of his ability to expatiate on his policies with modifications from audience to audience. He effortlessly spins out statements of prodigious complexity, as in this 101-word utter- ance on health care:

The people who say that if I want to go to a four-year, phased-in competi- tion model and that won't save any tax money on the deficit in the first four years, but will save huge tax money on the deficit in the next four years, miss the main point, which is that if we have a system now which begins to move health care costs down toward inflation, and therefore lowers health care as a percentage of the GNP in the years ahead, the main beneficiaries by factor of almost two to one will be in the private sector. (Clinton 1992)2

4. The Not-So-Great Communicator

But Clinton's astonishing fluency serves him badly. He finds it too

June 1998 179



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178 PS: Political Science & Politics



Features

easy to deluge the public with details and is less-than-adept at conveying the principles behind his programs. In this he is the antithesis of Ronald Reagan, who was notoriously lacking in information, but gifted at evoking larger themes.

5. Charm

In spite of being thin-skinned, Clinton has proved to be one of the more ingratiating occupants of the Oval Office. But his charm, like that of Franklin Roosevelt, can lead those who consult with him to be- lieve he has accepted their views when he means only to acknowledge that he has heard them.

6. Dynamism and Good Cheer

Other elements in the amalgam are Clinton's preternatural optimism, energy, and ebullience. Even when he is deeply beleaguered, as in the controversies that bedeviled him

during the 1992 New Hampshire pri- mary and the Monica Lewinsky epi- sode, Clinton has an ability to ap- pear up-beat that also is reminiscent of FDR.

7. Lack of Self-Discipline Then there is his lack of self-disci-

pline and imperfect impulse control. Herein is a major source of his trou- bles, whether in the form of a tendency to overload the policy agenda, or to give excessively long speeches, or to be scandal-prone in his private life.

8. Insensitivity to Organization Clinton's talents cry out for man-

agement, but he is insensitive to the need to back himself up with a well- ordered support system. He has ac- knowledged that he entered the presidency without attending closely to how to organize his White House (Nelson and Donovan 1993), and his

initial team was short on political skill and Washington experience. Then his well-known learning curve manifested itself, and he took on such able, seasoned aides as David Gergen, Leon Panetta, and Michael McCurry.

9. Resilience and Capacity to Take Correction

Finally, there is his uncommon ability to rebound in the face of mis- fortune and his readiness to admit his own failings, qualities that ac- count for the claim that he is incapa- ble of sustained error.

The Two Syntheses Under some circumstances, Clin-

ton's attributes combine to contrib- ute to his anything-goes approach to governance; under others, they con- verge in his more measured and effective style. His second mode often

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180 PS: Political Science & Politics



There He Goes Again: The Alternating Political Style of Bill Clinton

does not come into play until out- side forces have constrained him. Thus, he was far more surefooted after the Republicans won control of Congress in 1994 than before, and he delivered a bravura State of the Union address in the midst of the media barrage about Ms. Lewinsky.

It is not clear why someone as intelligent and politically adept as Clinton should be so dependent on external correction. As is often pointed out, he is the step-son of an alcoholic; and the children of alco- hol abusers exhibit a wide variety of behavioral difficulties (Kaufman and Pattison 1982; Cruse 1989). He also was raised by a doting mother, whose strong point was not setting limits, and his high aspirations in themselves are an invitation to over- reaching himself.3

Clinton's outward characteristics seem to place him in James David Barber's active-positive character category, but he clearly has inner complexities that do not figure in Barber's classification (Barber 1992). More to the point may be the writ- ings of Richard Neustadt (1960), which address the political require- ments of presidential effectiveness. In addition to his formal powers, the president has two resources with which to accomplish his purposes, Neustadt argues. One is his reputation in the policy-making community

as a skilled, determined player and the other is the perception of other policymakers that he has the support of the public.

When he has his act together, Clinton can be impressively success- ful in meeting Neustadt's criteria, but there is no guarantee that he will not slip into his alternate mode. Stay tuned!

Notes 1. For an earlier attempt to take Clinton's

measure, see Greenstein (1993-94). 2. It is less clear how good Clinton is at

making the balanced judgments that are re- ferred to by the term "common sense," or whether he thinks critically about the validity of the formulations he verbalizes with such ease.

3. For an examination of Clinton through a psychoanalytic prism, see Renshon (1996).

References Barber, J.D. 1992. The Presidential Character:

Predicting Performance in the White House. 4th ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Clinton, W.J. 1992. "Excerpts from the Inter- view with President-Elect Clinton." Wall Street Journal, December 18.

Cruse, S.W. 1989. Another Chance: Hope and Health for the Alcoholic Family. Palo Alto, CA: Science and Behavior Books.

Drew, E. 1995. On the Edge: The Clinton Pres- idency. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Dumas, E. 1993. The Clintons of Arkansas: An Introduction by Those Who Knew Them Best. Fayetteville, AR: University of Ar- kansas Press.

Greenstein, F.I. 1982. The Hidden-Hand Presi- dency: Eisenhower as Leader. New York: Basic Books.

-. 1993-94. "The Presidential Leadership Style of Bill Clinton: An Early Appraisal." Political Science Quarterly 108(Winter): 589-601.

Johnson, H., and D. Broder. 1996. The Sys- tem: American Politics at the Breaking Point. Boston: Little, Brown.

Kaufman, E., and E.M. Pattison. 1982. "The Family and Alcoholism." In Encyclopedic Handbook of Alcoholism, ed. E.M. Pattison and E. Kaufman. New York: Gardner Press.

Maraniss, David. 1995. First in His Class: The Biography of Bill Clinton. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Nelson, J., and R.J. Donovan. 1993. "The Ed- ucation of a President: After Six Months of Quiet Success and Loud Failure, Bill Clinton Talks About the Frustrating Pro- cess of Figuring Out His Job." Los Angeles Times Magazine, August 1.

Neustadt, R.E. 1960. Presidential Power: The Politics of Leadership. New York: Norton.

Renshon, S.A. 1996. High Hopes: The Clinton Presidency and the Politics of Ambition. New York: NYU Press.

Woodward, B. 1994. The Agenda: Inside the Clinton White House. New York: Simon and Schuster.

About the Author Fred I. Greenstein is professor of politics and director, Woodrow Wilson School Research Program in Leadership Studies at Princeton University.

June 1998 181



there he goes again: the alternating political style of bill clinton

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